Dropbox Explains Policy on DMCA Reviews
Many were outraged when Darrell Whitelaw tweeted a picture of Dropbox denying his ability to share a folder due to a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request. Whitelaw later admitted that he was indeed trying to share a copyrighted video with a public link. Dropbox has explained to Ars Technica that it does not scan private documents, nor did it remove the file from Whitelaw’s account, but it does compare hashes of publicly shared files against the hashes of files that have already been served a notice. The DMCA requires companies like Dropbox to take measures to ensure that copyrighted material is not shared after a takedown notice has been issued. Whitelaw himself told Ars, “They’re just following the laws laid out for them. Was just surprised to see it.”